It was a nice sunny afternoon in early April and Long Ridge Open Space Preserve looked quite inviting. As expected, the wildflowers were putting on a great show. We started with Peters Creek Trail. The view was wonderful, as you looked northwest along the trail. In the first stretch from the parking lot, we […]
The recent rains made for a nice surprise on my hike last weekend. I went to Pleasanton Ridge in the afternoon. It was refreshing to see everything turning green after the hot, dry days of summer. Soon I came across my first California Newt as it was crossing the trail. I find their determined plodding quite […]
It’s about that time of year again when salamanders become easier to see around the bay area so I took a few hours today in between bouts of severe rain to poke around some logs at Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park. We’ve seen several amphibian species here before including California Slender Salamanders, Yellow-eyed Ensatinas, California Newts and Western […]
On a short walk along South Park Drive last weekend in the hills above Berkeley we made some pretty interesting finds: a Yellow-eyed Ensatina and a California Slender Salamander. Each November through March, South Park Drive in Tilden Regional Park is closed to automobiles due to California Newt and Rough-skinned Newt migration. The newts migrate […]
Las Trampas is one of the few parks which is accessible early in the morning. We started our hike at about 7 am with high hopes for spotting wildlife. There was the faint hope of seeing a Puma (Mountain Lion) since they have been seen here. We decided to take the trail leading to Las […]